By: Sandipan Bose
Now that India have conquered five Test match series at home, winning Tests outside India is what Virat Kohli and his men should look to do so. Of course, it’s early to talk about it, but it’s never too early to start preparing for it.
For the Indian Cricket Team to achieve same level of success which the hosts have enjoyed over England, the team would have to depend on the fast bowlers to do the job.
For that, India need to identify a bunch of pacers and train the existing ones. Most importantly, India need to appoint a fast bowling coach. Both for the senior team as well as at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
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Earlier, approaches were made to several candidates including former Test player Zaheer Khan, still BCCI couldn’t crack the code. Reason? The board wasn’t willing to shell out more than Rs 1 crore or so.
It is time to get moving and make right choices. India would prefer to have a foreign or an Indian coach? There are indications that the board may follow the same interview process through which Kumble was appointed.
There is also section in the team which believes that the fast bowling coach would be handpicked by Kumble himself. It is also revealed that the both BCCI and team management aren’t in a rush to pick the fast bowling coach, which isn’t the right thing to do.
If a fast bowling coach is appointed in the course of the home series against Australia or during the England ODI and T20 series early next year, there would be time for him to work on the bowlers. The workload of the team is mostly on the Indian spinners.
Perhaps, it’s not easy to find logic in things sometimes. The good thing is that both the pacers from India — Mohd Shami, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar — are doing well. But you to keep a pool of fast bowlers ready in case of an injury, which a specialised job of a fast bowling coach.
